Certain gas turbine engine components are exposed to temperatures that necessitate a protective coating arrangement. This coating arrangement may include a bond coat layer of, for example, an MCrAlY material, and a thermal barrier coating layer of, for example, yttria-stabilized zirconia. These coatings may be applied to a superalloy substrate during original manufacture, or an engine run component that has experienced spallation.
Application of these coating layers may be accomplished using several known processes, including thermal spraying processes such as Low Pressure Plasma Spray and High Velocity Oxygen Fuel processes. The coating layers must be applied so they maintain a certain level of roughness, uniformity of thickness, or even a specified gradient, any of which can be difficult to efficiently achieve using the known processes. Consequently, there remains room in the art for improvement.